All posts tagged: Pulls

Converse pulls ad after claims it appeared to show a KKK lynching

Converse pulls ad after claims it appeared to show a KKK lynching

Published by Daniella Wilson

Converse has apologized and pulled a sneaker ad after online backlash over imagery critics compared to the Ku Klux Klan and lynching. The ad, part of Converse’s global campaign for its Chuck 70 X sneaker, featured K-pop star Karina of the group Aespa standing beneath a star-shaped spotlight while holding a pair of black high-top Converse sneakers. She wore a long white skirt, while the lighting made her silhouette look to many social media users like a KKK hood, with the dangling sneakers drawing comparisons to a lynching victim. The Chuck 70 X was released globally on August 27, and the controversial image was posted to Converse’s social media accounts earlier this month. But the backlash intensified after social media users circulated an uncropped version of the advertisement, which they said made the resemblance to a pointed hood and hanging body more apparent. Converse, which is owned by Nike, told The Independent in a statement: “We’re sorry. We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong. We removed it …

Cooper Tomlinson Pulls Back the Curtain on Movie

Cooper Tomlinson Pulls Back the Curtain on Movie

Published by Daniella Wilson

[This story contains spoilers for Obsession.]  In 2018, two aspiring actors named Cooper Tomlinson and Curry Barker met while in line during their first day at Los Angeles’ New York Film Academy. The pair quickly struck up a friendship over The Walking Dead and Weezer, likely debating the eternal question about whether the latter’s Blue Album or Pinkerton is the superior record.  The two quickly realized that producing their own material on YouTube could provide them the more immediate, hands-on education they were craving. So they dropped out of NYFA’s acting program and dove head first into generating web series, sketches and short films on their channel called That’s a Bad Idea. Their efforts are highlighted by an award-winning short film known as The Chair (2023) and the no-budget found-footage feature, Milk & Serial (2024).  In between their prolific collaboration, Tomlinson and Barker would still audition for random acting roles and write their own solo projects. Cut to July of 2023, Tomlinson attended a gathering to celebrate Barker’s role on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, …

The Bob Baker Marionette Theater Pulls Strings Back Into Zeitgeist

The Bob Baker Marionette Theater Pulls Strings Back Into Zeitgeist

Published by Daniella Wilson

Not long ago, Hollywood’s beloved Bob Baker Marionette Theater was hanging on by a thread. In the final decades of its eponymous founder’s life — he died in 2014, at the age of 90 — the puppetry organization was in perpetual dire financial straits, its longtime downtown L.A. playhouse in decay, particularly as the rise of CGI sapped its workshop’s film and TV gigs. Yet recent years have seen the revival of BBMT, known for cabaret-style shows whose whimsical bygone aesthetic is drawn from vaudeville and carnival midways. Today a non-profit, the theater has been string-pulling its way back into the Zeitgeist, its puppeteers performing to a massive crowd at Coachella this spring, its merch adorning Rachel Sennott’s talent manager on HBO’s I Love L.A. Now, for its next act, BBMT is attempting to purchase the historic Highland Park stage it took over in 2019 and mounting the company’s first original show in more than four decades. “It’s a rare heart-warming story in the time we live in right now, this little glimmer of hope,” …

KPMG pulls report on AI usage due to apparent hallucinations

KPMG pulls report on AI usage due to apparent hallucinations

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Professional services firm KPMG has pulled a report titled, “Redefining excellence in the age of agentic AI,” after numerous organizations said the report’s claims about their AI usage were untrue. Research group GPTZero identified a number of inaccuracies in the report, which was published in October 2025. GPTZero told the FT that the inaccuracies stemmed from AI hallucinations. In other words, the professional services firm appears to have used AI to help write a report about AI.  UBS, the UK’s National Health Service, Swiss Federal Railways, and Transport for London all told the FT that the report’s claims about their AI usage were either untrue or misleading. A KPMG spokesperson said the firm removed the report from its websites while conducting its own investigation. “We expect all our people to follow our guidelines on the responsible use of AI, including human oversight to validate content and verify independent sources,” the spokesperson said. Last month, EY withdrew a report on loyalty rewards programs that appeared to include fake footnotes and AI hallucinations. Source link

Britain’s Draper pulls out of Queen’s

Britain’s Draper pulls out of Queen’s

Published by Sam Flores

LONDON, June 9 : Britain’s Jack Draper withdrew from next week’s Queen’s Club ATP tournament on Tuesday, saying he would delay his comeback from a knee injury for another week as he targets Wimbledon. The British number three has not played a competitive match since retiring from the Barcelona claycourt event in April. Draper reached the semi-final at Queen’s last year and his absence is a blow to the tournament which is already missing several big names including 2025 champion Carlos Alcaraz. “Recovery is going in the right direction, but I’m going to give myself one more week and aim to return at Eastbourne,” the former world number four said in a statement. “It’s very hard to miss one of my favourite events of the year.” Draper’s 2025 season was cut short as he nursed a long-term bone bruise in his arm and he has contested only eight Tour-level matches this year, meaning he has dropped outside the top-100 in the ATP rankings. The 24-year-old recently added two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray to his team. …

Wim Wenders pulls film featuring topless 13-year-old Nastassja Kinski

Wim Wenders pulls film featuring topless 13-year-old Nastassja Kinski

Published by Sam Flores

Acclaimed German director Wim Wenders announced he was withdrawing his 1975 film, “Wrong Move,” from distribution due to a scene featuring then-13-year-old actor Nastassja Kinski topless. Kinski played Mignon, a mute acrobat and street performer, in the film. In the controversial scene, she is featured lying on the bed topless as she tries to seduce her 30-something co-star Rüdiger Vogler, who plays Wilhelm. Wilhelm enters the room, removes most of his clothing and gets into bed with her, slaps her, pushes her away and then caresses her face and cradles her. Kinski, who also starred in Roman Polanski’s “Tess” and Wenders’ “Paris, Texas,” has voiced her discomfort with the scene for decades and recently told a German news outlet that, although she “didn’t know much at the age of 13,” she could tell that it wasn’t right. In a 1997 USA TV interview, she was candid about wishing some of her work could be scrubbed from the screen permanently, saying, “I’ve done quite a lot of movies, a lot of movies that I want to …

Gamers Cheer as Microsoft Pulls Copilot AI Out of Xbox Entirely

Gamers Cheer as Microsoft Pulls Copilot AI Out of Xbox Entirely

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech It may finally be starting to dawn on Microsoft that shoving AI in its loyal customers’ faces at all costs might not be the right move. Among gamers, who have watched the AI industry’s run on computer hardware make PC components horrendously unaffordable in a matter of a year or two, AI has turned more into a derogatory slur than a selling point. Microsoft’s Xbox CEO Asha Sharma appears to have taken this new reality to heart, announcing in a Tuesday tweet that the ailing gaming platform would “begin winding down” the company’s Copilot AI chatbot on mobile and “development” on console. The response was rapturous, to say the least, with netizens jokingly crowning her as the new Xbox savior. “Rest in p**s, Copilot,” one user replied. “Everybody likes that,” one Reddit user wrote, referencing a popular video game meme. The overwhelming positive reaction to Sharma’s announcement highlights a massive growing backlash to AI — and how swinging …

Steven Soderbergh’s ‘The Christophers’ Pulls Off an Emotional Heist

Steven Soderbergh’s ‘The Christophers’ Pulls Off an Emotional Heist

Published by Daniella Wilson

Julian Sklar spends most of his workday performing on camera. Not for anyone important; the cantankerous artist (played by Ian McKellen), the protagonist of Steven Soderbergh’s new movie, The Christophers, is recording jokey Cameos for eager fans. Facing a ring-lit iPhone, he rambles about his fading career with chipper bumptiousness. Julian, the viewer quickly learns, is guarding a series of unfinished masterpieces in his house that he refuses to complete or sell, and his greedy children want their hands on his stash either way. His kids have thus concocted a scheme: Hire someone to work as their father’s assistant, secretly finish the paintings under his nose, and make a profit. This being a Soderbergh movie, one might hear that premise and expect a caper—he directed Ocean’s Eleven (and two of its sequels), after all. He’s a master of the heist movie, and what Sklar’s useless kids, Barnaby (James Corden) and Sallie (Jessica Gunning), are engineering is a whimsical, intimate theft. They bring in an unheralded artist named Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), who says she can …

Strictly’s Amber Davies pulls out of Legally Blonde mid-show: ‘My body’s fighting for its life’

Strictly’s Amber Davies pulls out of Legally Blonde mid-show: ‘My body’s fighting for its life’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Strictly Come Dancing star Amber Davies has stepped back from her role in the UK tour of Legally Blonde after pulling out of a show mid-way through due to health issues. The actor and ex Love Island star is playing Elle Woods in the musical, based on the 2001 Reese Witherspoon film, and started rehearsals after her stint on Strictly. Davies’s busy schedule seems to have taken its toll, with the 29-year-old admitting that her body is “fighting for its life” after falling ill last month. open image in gallery Amber Davies announced that she was stepping back from ‘Legally Blonde’ (Instagram: @amb_d) The performer took to her Instagram Stories on Wednesday (11 March) to update fans after being replaced midway through a performance of the musical. According to videos online posted by those in the audience, Davies became unwell after the show’s third number, with understudy Hannah Lowther taking over the role. The Independent has contacted Davies and the Legally Blonde production for comment. Posting on Instagram shortly after the show, Davies said that …

Former Olympian Sasha Cohen pulls back curtain on the harsh realities of figure skating 20 years after medaling

Former Olympian Sasha Cohen pulls back curtain on the harsh realities of figure skating 20 years after medaling

Published by Daniella Wilson

Retired Team USA figure skater Sasha Cohen has opened up about her experience competing in the Winter Olympics after watching Alysa Liu and Amber Glenn at the 2026 Olympics. Cohen, whose real name is Alexandra Pauline Cohen, earned a silver medal in the individual women’s figure skating event at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, in 2006. She returned to the Olympics as a spectator this year, cheering on Liu, Glenn, and Isabeau Levito as they looked to end a 20-year drought for Team USA women in the individual figure skating competition. In both a recent essay for USA Today and an Instagram post — published right before Liu went on to win Olympic gold — the retired skater reflected on the intensity she experienced as a young competitor in the demanding sport. “Twenty years ago, I was on the Olympic podium in Turin, Italy. Now, I’m back as a spectator, watching the figure skating events with both nostalgia and relief as I relive the highs and lows of my Olympic experience,” Cohen’s lengthy Instagram …